Painters oftentimes use hand roller paint applicators having a nap-covered rolling sleeve or tube that is coated in paint. The paint is subsequently rolled onto the object desired to be painted. Ordinarily these objects have a large flat surface, e.g., a wall. These paint rollers provide a quick, reliable, and relatively inexpensive tool for applying paint to these surfaces.
In certain applications, the paint roller is mounted upon an extension rod or pole that allows a user to extend his reach and paint a larger surface area without using additional equipment such as ladders or scaffolding. While these extension poles do permit a user to paint areas that are otherwise difficult to reach, they are merely elongated straight handles that do not provide any flexibility to the user to paint around obstacles that may need to be avoided while painting.
For example, a painter may need to paint a portion of a wall that is above wall-mounted signs, cabinets, or shelves. Present, straight pole extensions will not easily allow the painter to reach the entire surface and the painter will normally have to climb a ladder to paint the areas that he cannot reach with the extension pole mounted paint roller.
The above-described secondary painting that must be done creates additional work for the painter and increases the likelihood of injury due to the painter having to “leave the ground” and climb upon a ladder or scaffold.
Previous attempts to overcome the limitation of straight pole extensions include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,207,755 issued May 4, 1993 to Gregory J. Ampian for “Universally Adjustable Paint Roller”; 5,860,902 issued Jan. 19, 1999 to Bor-Zeng Bohr Jang et al. for “Paint Roller Frame with an Adjustable Handle”; 5,050,261 issued Sep. 24, 1991 to Roland J. Hofacker for “Angularly Adjustable Adapter for Paint Rollers”; 3,357,035 issued Dec. 12, 1967 to Ralph Ficke for “Brush and Roller Extension Pole”. None of these prior art patents, however, provide a paint roller assembly that, among other advantages, is positionable at multiple angles and includes a locking mechanism that is biased in the locked position to ensure that the paint roller stays at the selected angle.